I'm doing a term paper for my english class on Ruth. And this is a short bio that i had to write on her to prove that i read a book on her.. so here it is, thought you guys would like to learn about her. i got an A+ on this by the way. hehe

Em

Ruth St. Denis

Ruth Denis was born on January 20th 1879 on a New Jersey farm to Tom and Emma Dennis. Growing up, Ruth escaped her family’s troubles and bad reputation by engulfing herself within poetry and dance and any form of theatre. Her family realized her natural talent for dance and she was soon enrolled in classes ranging from Delsarte technique, ballet lessons with the Italian ballerina Maria Bonfante, social dance forms and skirt dancing. As the years passed, Ruth’s talent enhanced and she turned to professionalism; her career began in New York City in 1892, where she worked as a skirt dancer in a dime museum and in vaudeville houses. In 1898, David Belasco, a well known and extremely successful Broadway producer and director, noticed Dennis unique and amazing stage presence. He asked her to join his large company as a featured dancer and after she accepted. The company toured around the United States and Europe, showcasing many dances that widened Denis’s fame, allowing her to receive the stage name “Ruth St. Denis”. She became very interested in the dance and drama of Eastern cultures, including Japan, India and Egypt. In 1905, St. Denis left Belasco's company to begin a career as a solo artist which sky rocketed. With the help of various people she managed to become one of the most well known dancers of her time and is seen as the mother of today’s modern dance. During her career she married her dance partner Ted Shawn, at that time her solo career was over and together they founded the first of their Denishawn schools of dance in Los Angeles in 1915. In 1931 Denis and Shawn separated both in their relationship and professionally, though they never divorced and still kept in contact. In 1931, St. Denis retired for a short time from public performance, and founded the Society of Spiritual Arts. In 1940, she founded the School of Natya to continue the teaching of Oriental dance, with help of Russell M. Hughe. She went back to performing in 1941 with an appearance at the Jacob’s Pillow Festival in Massachusetts; she continued to appear at the festival until 1955. Lastly, she established a church, St. Denis Religious Art Church, whose mission was the realization of the Divine through the form of the Arts. Ruth continued to dance until the 1960’s in which many of her famous dances were recorded on film for future generations to experience. She died on July 21, 1968 in Hollywood, Los Angeles after suffering a heart attack.

Throughout her life Denis accomplished many things, but the most profound accomplishment would be the influence she had on modern dance in America. She expressed her belief that dance should be spiritual instead of being specifically for entertainment and that it doesn’t necessarily need to be technical and skillful. She emphasized the meaning and communication of ideas by using themes that were considered too philosophical for theatrical dance. She was never troubled with technique, but her use of "music visualizations" and Oriental forms inspired her students and many others to develop non-balletic movements. This new and overly thought out form of dance would become known as modern dance.

interesting... can you explain what innovations did she start? I mean, you wrote it in the last paragraph, but I wanted to know something more. Are you able to help? Anyway, thank you and karma for you!!
sunny_day

Didn't Martha Graham go to one of her schools. And I think Ted Shawn started an all male dance troupe after he broke it off with St. Denis. Correct me if I'm wrong.

well, as for her innovations..i would say that by mixing all the different forms of asian dance and by adding her own spirtual beliefs to them, she was able to come up with a new form of dance that no one had ever seen or imagened before, which is why it became so popular because it just captured the audience's sensesand curiousity. hope that helped.

yes, Martha did go to her school. I actually have a quote from her about Ruth from the book -Wisdom comes dancing: "Miss Ruth opened a door and i saw into life. I worshipped everything about Miss Ruth- How she walked, how she danced. Miss Ruth was everythig to me" Martha Graham

as for shawn and his all male troupe, i wouldn't know, i only researched on Denis, but i wouldn't doubt it if he did.

Em

p.s. im glad you enjoyed reading this.

good stuff! awesome job!

Ted Shawn, Ruth's husband started Ted Shawn and his Male Dancers (very creative name, lol). They performed in places like Jacob's Pillow and the like. Before he and Ruthie split (turns out he was a bit of a bi-sexual) the two started Denishawn, a dance company that incorporated both of their names and travelled around doing modern peices. They borrowed heavily from Indian and other Asian cultures to bring the world to Americans who, at the time couldn't afford to travel as they did.